Hatchet Dust

[Steve887788]

[PossumPie]

What was the reason to coat the hatchet blade with dust ? and if it was to make it look like the others then why a different color dust ?
Was this done on purpose or ignorance ?

PRELIMINARY HEARING
(speaking of the axes that were found)
Q. Were they lying down, or hanging?
A. Lying down lengthwise on a cross piece, I should say.
Q. They were covered with dust and ashes; you mean the fine
dust of ashes?
A. Covered with ashes, they was.

TRIAL
MR. MOODY. Mr. Knowlton would like to have you mark with the pencil where that was found.
A. This is the chimney there, and I should say it is about here---somewhere about there, I should say.
Q. At the time you found that hatchet was the wood and iron or steel separate?
A. Let me see if that is the one?
Q. Yes. I will withdraw that question and ask you if that is the hatchet you found?
A. This looks like the hatchet that I found there; pretty sure that that is the one. This piece of wood was in the head of the hatchet, broken off close.
Q. Broken off close to the hatchet?
A. Very close to the hatchet.
Q. Mr. Fleet, will you describe everything in respect to the appearance of that hatchet, if you can?
MR. ROBINSON. Don't want anything but just what the hatchet was at that time; don't want any inferences.
MR. MOODY. I think he will be careful.
Q. Any appearances that you noticed about the hatchet, you may describe.
A. Yes, sir, I don't want to do anything else, Mr. Attorneys. The hatchet was covered with a heavy dust or ashes.

It is unknown. The handle-less hatchet was found separate from other tools in a box with ash over it. Much is made of the ash, but testimony shows that the axes also had the fine ash on them. The simple explanation would be at some point the handle broke and someone threw it in a box of junk. Over time it got ash deposited on it as it did with the axes down there. The conspiratorial view would be it was used by someone to commit the crime, the handle purposely broken off, blood washed off, dried, and put into ashes to appear like it had been there for a long time. I don't think there is any real way of determining 100+ years later but to me it seems like too much work for a killer with very little time to cover up a weapon. Actually the only other hatchet found was intact with its handle and NO ashes on it. It had a rust spot people first thought might be blood, and a cow's hair people first thought was human. Even today, homes heated with woodstoves, coal stoves, or coal furnaces get a layer of dark dust on everything and must be constantly dusted. When my mother-in-law died, I got a few tools from her basement that had a coal stove and everything was coated in ash. Had to clean everything completely.